Writer Kurt Vonnegut's distaste for the "terrible and sadistic" words of the mass for the dead as set forth by the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent led to his own version of the requiem, published in his "autobiographical collage" Fates Worse Than Death and here set to music.

"Vonnegut's thoroughly humanistic and moving text is beautifully rendered by tenor Frederick Urrey in Barab's extraordinary, scintillating score…. Text and music blend smoothly, assisting each other to reach emotional high points. The cantata is well worth listening to over and over again. Supplementing the Vonnegut-Barab 25-minute cantata are Barab's sprightly Dances for Oboe and Strings and … Moments Macabres, eight delightfully humorous and morbid short pieces from anonymous poems in The Oxford Book of Light Verse…. Barab, who deserves to be more well known, is a composer of great talent, wit, and inventiveness."—The Humanist

"Barab's music is full of magic. He proved to an atheist that God exists. What an honor to have worked with him."—Kurt Vonnegut